Why Forest Fires Are Good For You (if you're a big brown bat)

Big brown bats

Forest fires are both destructive and spectacular. Not quite up there with volcanoes or tsunamis, perhaps, but nonetheless pretty dramatic, wreaking havoc on the local environment. Human-caused fires, when they get out of control, can be very damaging to the ecosystem, which may take years to recover. Yet forest fires have been around since long before humans, and, for at least some forests, they are just a natural part of the cycle of life. Indeed, there are some plants whose seeds germinate specifically after a local wildfire. But how does this affect animal communities?

One such environment is that of sandhill forests. Sandhills are so named because of their sandy, well-drained soils, often dominated by ash, but (unlike the much more barren sand dunes) they support significant plant communities. In the southeast USA, between Virginia and eastern Texas, the dominant tree in these forests is the longleaf pine. Frequent fires are essential for this species to do well, and, left without fire for too long, the nature of the forests change dramatically, in this case being replaced by denser oak woodland.

What Fur Seals do at Sea

I seem to have done quite a few posts on cetaceans over the last few months, and have discussed, among other things, the difficulty of finding out what they're up to, compared with land animals. But, of course, whales and dolphins are not the only fully marine mammals. There are, in fact, four groups of such mammals, with the second largest, after the cetaceans, being the pinnipeds - seals and their relatives.

Seals differ from whales and dolphins in that, while they spend almost their entire lives at sea, they still have to come onshore to breed and give birth. Mammals have an advantage over birds, and most reptiles, in that they don't lay eggs, which would drown if you tried to lay them underwater, but it's still quite difficult for newborn, air-breathing, young to immediately take to swimming. Whales and dolphins have mastered this evolutionary trick (as have sea snakes, for that matter), but seals have yet to do so. Give them a few more million years, perhaps.